Iron Maiden Singer Visits Mildenhall

A passenger on one of the 100th Air Refueling Wing’s flights Monday afternoon was a commercial airline pilot.

But Bruce Dickinson is better known as the front man for Iron Maiden, one of the most successful and influential heavy metal bands in the business.

“When I was a kid, I had my own air force of plastic aircraft that I built,” Dickinson said before the afternoon flight.

But it was not until 13 years ago that he climbed in the cockpit and flew an airplane.

“When I did, I felt so stupid that I hadn’t done it before,” he said. “The farther from Earth I got, the happier I was.”

It may seem an odd combination of careers. On one hand, Dickinson is the manic singer of a heavy metal rock band. On the other, he is a cool, calm pilot of Boeing 757s for Astraeus, a British charter airline.

He was at Mildenhall to film part of a series he is hosting for the Discovery Channel called “Flying Heavy Metal.” The series will feature classic aircraft, such as the KC-135 Stratotanker. It is due to air on European television next year.

He said it is not so different from being on stage in front of a crowd, where the performance is the external result of the internal process of composing the music.